1851 Archives - The Libertarian Labyrinth

William B. Greene, “The Bible and State Rights” (1851)

January 7, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

William Batchelder Greene’s articles for The Worcester Palladium are an idiosyncratic mix of religious and political concerns, but it would be interesting, for example, to read articles like this alongside Proudhon’s The Celebration of Sunday. Idiosyncratic mixture was, after all, more the rule than the exception among the earliest anarchists. Wm. B. Greene in “The Worcester Palladium” For the Palladium. The Bible and State Rights. The Hebrew Commonwealth consisted of ten distinct tribes. Each of these tribes constituted a civil community, independent in its legitimate sphere of the other tribes. Each tribe had its separate rulers, legislature, &c. To illustrate […]

William B. Greene, “Resistance to Law” (1851)

January 6, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

This early article by William Batchelder Greene is remarkable for its discussion of anarchy, a topic to which Greene devoted very little attention. The treatment of the topic is characterized by a familiar sort of ambivalence. It closely resembles some more familiar forms of the “anarchy is order” argument in places. Wm. B. Greene in “The Worcester Palladium” For the Palladium. Resistance to Law. Mr. Editor:—In former times, when the people supposed that their kings reigned by diving right, men were bound in conscience to obey the laws with alacrity. But it happened, in the progress of events, that the […]

Mikhail Bakunin, “Confession” (1851)

November 4, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

titre: Confession titre de l’original: date: juillet-août 1851 lieu: Forteresse Pierre-et-Paul pays: Russie source: Moscou, GARF f.825, o.1, d.297 langue: traduction traduction: Bakounine, Confession. 1851, traduit par Paulette Brupbacher, Paris, 1974 |1Votre Majesté Impériale très Gracieuse Majesté! Comme on me ramenait d’Autriche en Russie, pensant à la sévérité des lois russes et connaissant Votre haine implacable pour toute action rappelant, même de loin, une désobéissance, à plus forte raison pour une révolte manifeste contre la volonté de Votre Majesté Impériale; connaissant aussi toute la gravité de mes crimes, que je n’espérais ni ne désirais cacher ou diminuer devant les tribunaux, […]

Pauline Roland, “Have Women the Right to Labor?” (1851)

March 31, 2014 anarchisms_w4l2ii

A Letter from Pauline Roland We extract from the Espérance a letter of a courageous and intelligent woman, a martyr of modern times, a heroine of Socialism, dead fighting for Progress and for Humanity. Pauline Roland is no more—and yet she still fights among us, with the drops of her blood as with the pearls of her thought, she shakes the scourge at the heads of the reactionaries, revolution in the faces of the civilized? Have Women the Right to Labor? [1] A Simple Question Addressed by a captive to the citizen Emile de Girardin, editor of the Bien-Etre […]

Pauline Roland and the women transported after the December 1851 coup d’etat

July 3, 2013

[I’ve been hoping to put together a collection of Pauline Roland’s writing, but I’ve had difficulties tracking down many of the more important essays. However, her letters from jail and her subsequent transportation to Africa, following Louis Napoleon’s coup, have proven to be a little easier to track down. While the martyrs of December 2 don’t feature very prominently in our own political histories, they were important figures in their own day, and Roland’s letters appeared in English in both the exile press and the feminist papers. Jeanne Deroin circulated a collection of Roland’s letters as part of an announcement […]

The trial of Joseph Déjacque, October 23, 1851

January 31, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] Courts and Tribunals COURT OF ASSIZE OF THE SEINE. M. d’Esparbès de Lussan, presiding. Offense involving the press. The Lazarenes. Mr. Joseph Déjacque, a paper hanger, thirty years of age, author of a work entitled The Lazarenes, Social Fables and Poems is arraigned before the jury and accused of the crimes of: l) exciting hate and contempt for the government of the republic; 2) having sought to disturb the public peace by exciting the contempt or hatred of the citizens against one another; 3) justifying acts described as criminal […]